The arrival of Fortnite on the Nintendo Switch has been marred by Sony's decision to not allow full cross-platform support between the PlayStation and the Switch console.

The popular battle royale game was released on the Switch on Tuesday, and will now enable players using an Xbox One, PC, Mac computer or mobile to pick up their Switch and carry on where they left off.

However, Sony has blocked the same system from its PlayStation 4 - instead asking users to create a new account.

"This Fortnite account is associated with a platform which does not allow it to operate on Switch," says a failed log-in message within Fortnite with a PS4-linked account.

"Neither the Fortnite website nor (developer) Epic Customer Services are able to change this. To play Fornite on Switch, please create a new account."

The incident has sparked widespread anger on social media, with fans and industry insiders urging Sony to change its policy, including video games writer Greg Miller from Kinda Funny, who warned the decision "makes me think about moving to Xbox for Fortnite."

Meanwhile, rival gaming giant Microsoft poked fun at Sony's stance, with its official UK Twitter account posting a message to Nintendo asking if the company wanted to "play some Fortnite later?".

Sony has not commented on the incident but has blocked cross-play capabilities for other games in the past, for games including Minecraft.

It comes as the E3 gaming convention opened in Los Angeles.

The three-day games trade show is expected to welcome more than 60,000 attendees, who will have the chance to play upcoming games such as Spider-Man, Shadow Of The Tomb Raider and Call Of Duty: Black Ops 4.